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THE AFRICAN IN AMEHICA. 

TO FIND HIS TRUE POSITION, AND PLACE HIM IN IT, THE VIA 

MEDIA ON WHICH THE NORTH AND SOUTH MIGHT MEET 

IN A PERMAMENT AND HAPPY SETTLEMENT. 



This nation appears evidently near a crisis, in whicli the 
forms of our past policy, in regard to the Africans among 
us, must encounter a change. A great upheaval — a bloody 
civil war, having reference to that race, has so commingled 
and dissolved the political elements, that they are now in a 
plastic state, and ready to be moulded for futurity — well or 
ill, as wisdom or folly shall rule the hour. Light is needed, 
and will be welcome, even should it come glimmering from 
an earthen vase — long used, and ready to mingle with its na- 
tive dust. 

Our subject is the African race as existing in this nation, 
North and South ; and the great question underlying it is — 
what, considering their peculiar characteristics, ought to be 
their condition in our social system ? And we conceive that 
the inquiry would become simplified, if the statesman should 
first look at it in the single aspect of righteous dealing to the 
race ; for, if he find what thjs would be, he may surely ex- 
pect that in following it out, he would produce a state of 
things among us, good for all ; for good and right, duty and 
expediency, as God sees them, are one. 

Said the eloquent Henry Ward Beecher, (who has recently 
modified his views respecting the negroes,) " If I had been 
God, I would not have made ihem at all ; but since He who 
is wiser than all of us put together has seen fit to make them, 
and_ bring them here, what are you going to do with them?"* 
Bating a touch of profanity, we would thank Mr. Beecher for 
this candid statement of the case, indicating, as it does, the 
great error of fanaticism. God grant it may see and retrace 

* A highly respectable lady who heard him, related this to. me, and to 
others. 



Wise Ruler, not only by following out the indications of His 
will in His works of nature, but in submitting to the dis- 
pensations of His righteous providence. He has not only 
made the negro as he is, but He lias placed him here, and 
in such numbers thai lie connotnoio he rtmm'ed ; and our iirst 
duty concerning him is to settle his true position among us. 

There is an ulterior object, dear to the heart of Christian 
philanthropists, especially those of the African race, which 
looks to their ultimate removal to Liberia. This should not 
be lost sight of; but it can by no possibility go forward but 
at a rate too slow to make much difference in the account of 
what is now to be done with the Africans of America. They 
amount to four millions, and they canuot be sent aioaii,for the 
sufficient reason thai VOLUNTAEILY THEY WILL NOT GO. Free 
or slave, they prefer to remain where they are. Among the 
free blacks of the North, the Colonization Society has long 
been setting forth the advantages of their quitting the use- 
less strife for equal position with the whites, and telling them 
how much better it would be for them to go back to the coun- 
try of their fathers — where the abilities of such black men as 
Roberts and Benson have already shown that their intellect- 
ual powers are equal to the founding and governing of a na- 
tion. How eloquently have Crummell and others shown them 
that they may not only acquire wealth and position, but 
benefit their race, and serve humanity at large, by going 
thither to join and aid their brethren ! Yet how few have 
listened to the appeal ; — and as regards the sending of the 
slaves of the South to Liberia, (a few instances to the con- 
trary,) we find that they are unwilling to go, even when mas- 
ters are willing to send them. 

Said a Virginia chambermaid to me in 1832, when I asked 
her "what do your people think about the new plan of your 
being sent to Liberia?" "Why, they thought well of it at 
first, and Aunt Flora and her husband, when their master 
gave them the chance, went with all their children ; but af- 
ter a year we had this word from them— that we had better 
stay and eat grass in old Virginia than to come there." In 
1846, during a tour through the slave States, I learned many 
facts on this, and cognate subjects. One which I received 
from the excellent Judge McGhee, of Woodville, Mississippi, 
I relate as the representative of a class. " James," said he to 
a colored servant of middle age, " you have served me faith- 
fully, you have deserved your freedom, and I now offer it to 
you, advising you to go to Liberia." " Will master go to 



Liberia ?" said the serva'at. " Ko, James, 1 cannot leave 
liome." " Then if master can't go, I can't ; all I want is to 
be as I have been, and live with master." 

If, then, the servants of good Southern masters are useful, 
liappy, and coatented, Avhy are we not to consider that the 
problem is already solved, and theirs is, in reality, the true 
position of the American Africans ? It might be so, if all 
masters, like these, were, in their treatment to'them, governed 
by kindness and Christianity; and if death and change were 
not the order of the world. And, indeed, it is not our voice 
which would ever alter these affectionate relations between 
good masters and good servants — who, indeed, ought not to 
be called slaves and slavediolders — but we wish the whole 
system to become modified, so that the barbarous laws of 
slavery, under which the race are liable to great abuses, 
many actually suffering them, may be abrogated and suc- 
ceeded by those of a civilized character, in which the true 
rights of the black man shall be recognised and duly guarded 
by law. That the African is a man, all believe ; and what 
is it but a barbarism to say, as has been said, that he has not 
a right in this country which the white man is bound to re- 
spect ? That the husband has no right to his wife ; the fa- 
ther and mother no right to the child — that all fathers, 
mothers, and children, though accustomed to indulgences, 
may be taken, should they chance to lose the best of mas- 
ters, or he become poor, and sold separately into distant 
lands ; or, still worse, when the slave-collector, sent by the 
spirit of gain, comes to buy human herds for some hard ser- 
vice in distant unhealthy lands, these plantation slaves may 
then be collected and penned up like cattle for a fair; and 
how is manhood degraded when the slave is set up on a 
jblock and shown off' to be sold as a chattel to the highest 
bidder ! and childhood is there — and womanhood — thrice de- 
graded ! 

If we would purge away slavery by taking from the laws 
the gross faults by which they are deformed, it is not that the 
watchful care which the good master affords to his servant, 
ajd which his dependent spirit and improvident nature makes 
him need, should be destroyed ; nor yet that the master should 
be deprived of his right to the services of a race whom other- 
wise he could not provide for or protect ; but that there should 
be limitations to this power made by law ; and guards fixed 
which shall shield the negro in case of the death or poverty 
of his master, as well as against his abuses : — in fine, to use 



6 

tbe language of the Eev. Dr. Fuller, of Baltimore, that "mas- 
ters should become guardians of their slaves and extend over 
them a parental government ;" and that tlie race be thus 
raised from the condition of slavery to that of a regulated 
servitiixh ; and this on the principle that though the master 
owns the time, according to restrictions of laAV, yet he does not 
own the man, — he belongs to God. This we believe would 
place the negroes in their true position ; and it is exactly the 
one which every good master, and especially every good mis- 
tress, at the South would desire to see established by law, 
and which, if it were established, the South would be hon- 
ored, and humanity every where would rejoice. We are per- 
suaded that this change is possible, and that it might be 
brought about by a tribunal composed of the best minds of 
such American statesmen as are thoroughly acquainted with 
the condition of the country and the character of the race to 
be dealt with ]^ and we say this in the confident hope that if 
such a change were cordially entered upon by the South, it 
would form the basis of a permanent settlement of the great 
question at issue between the North and the South, and event- 
ually bring improvement and happiness to the colored race ; 
whereas we believe that to emancipate them, in their pres- 
ent condition, would be likely to result, first in misery and 
confusion, and next in their final extermination. [For a 
continuation of this subject, see Note B.] 

Here we wish to meet by facts an anticipated objection 
from those who maintain that the negro is wronged unless 
he has absolute freedom. Two wealthy slave-holders, of 
Yirginia, becoming conscientiously imbued with the opinion 
that they were then living in the commission of sin, emi- 
grated with their slaves to western New York ; and, together, 
purchased a fine tract of land on one of the most beautiful 
lakes in the State. They laid it out into small farms, and 
built comfortable houses for the negroes, with places for wor- 
ship and instruction. Here the liberated slaves were to en- 
joy their paradise of freedom. But alas, they managed ill, 
and were neither prosperous nor happy. And although at 
first their benefactors would Avind them up whenever they 
ran down, yet they at length became discouraged, and con- 
vinced that their labors were hopeless; and they must aban- 
don their generous scheme as a failure.f 

*Sucli men, for example, as the Rev. Dr. Fuller, of Baltimore. 

fl had this account last winter from General Swift. I have endeavoied 
to give it exactly as he related it, but if there should be mistakes thej 
would doubtless be mine, for he described from personal knowled.ge. 



The abolition of the mild form of slavery which existed 
in New England'-'^ and New York at and after the Revolution, 
was an honest outburst of alarmed conscientiousness. But 
with facts as they now stand developed, it may fairly be 
questioned whether it did not produce, especially to the ne- 
groes, injury, where good was intended. The venerable 
Stephen Van Rensselaer, former patroon of Albany, mourned 
in his later days for the share he had taken in it ; for he said 
"there were then forty of these home servants to the manor 
born, and I have lived to see every one of them go into the 
gutter,"f So said the late Colonel Van Ness, formerly of 
New York, respecting the colored dependents of the wealthy 
and extensive family to which he belonged ; and so have 
said many others. 

And here we remark, as accounting in part for the differ- 
ences of opinion which prevail among us on the African 
question, that a singular and unaccountable difference exists 
among the individual negroes of the African tribes. The 
characteristic of the masses, as shown by Dr. Livingstone and 
others, is unquestioning obedience to their chiefs. But whence 
come the chiefs, endued as they are with the vast knowledge 
and extensive cares which appertain to their governments ? 
Above all, many of these chiefs have the mental element of 
a great will, and they exercise it without any touch of con- 
scientiousness. Dr. Livingstone asked Matiarauo why he 
sent to such a great distance for certain of his subjects. " To 
kill them," was the answer of the chief. " There are too many 
of them, and I want to thin them out." Yet, though sus- 
pecting his cruel designs, his subjects would follow their in- 
stinct of obedience, and come when he sent for them. This 
difference between the chief and his subjects among Africans 
seems to me as difficult to be accounted for, as royalty among 
the bees. And if, in the guardianship of a master over them, 
he should find indications that there are among them any 
born for queen bee;?, their aspirations for freedom should be 
encouraged, for otherwise they would be likely to become 
dangerous. These ideas may be somewhat visionary, but, 
that great inequality in the genius and talents of the race 
exists, none can doubt. Those who possess superior abilities 
are all needed in Liberia, and let them bo helped thither. 
In Canada, they make an unwholesome population. 

*A capital description of the former condition of the few petted negroes 
of New England exists in a work, " The Minister's Wooing,''^ by Mrs. li. 
Beecher Stowe. 

fFor the truth of this fact I refer to the R<?v. Dr. Campbell, of Albany. 



The former part of this subject has addressed itself to the 
South ; this hist part we address to the North. The fortunes 
of war have thrown a large number of Southern slaves into 
the hands of the Government. What is to be done with 
them ? Will not the President and Congress appoint com- 
missioners to find for them that position which in all right- 
eous dealing shall be decided to be for them the happiest and 
most useful ? They could not be sent to Liberia unless by 
previous training they had become fitted to be good citizens 
there; otherwise, as was the case with the captured negroes 
already sent, their board and teaching must first be paid for. 
If the liberated slaves on the cultivated banks of Seneca lake 
could not, with all the appliances furnished them by their 
kind benefactors, make headway for themselves, surely the 
Government would not be so cruel as to set them free with- 
out any guardian care over them. If they do, the Northern 
States will soon be following the example of Illinois and oth- 
ers, and making cruel laws to keep out all Africans. What 
then remains but that you, my brethren and sisters, Christian 
patriots and philanthropists of the North, should be appealed 
to ; that, regarding these contrabands, you, according to your 
ability and the situation of your families, each take one or 
two of them, perhaps a married pair, to your homes, and thus 
let us divide the responsibility which rests uponns, that they 
shall be cared for, and their children duly instructed ; then 
in ten or fifteen years, for their improvement requires time, 
they will become fitted to go to Liberia, and will have earned 
from you the means ; which of course the Government agents 
who would on this supposition have bound them to you, will 
see that you are under legal obligation to perform. But if 
in the mean time your contrabands, having it at their option 
to go, prefer staying with you, as your permanent, faithful, 
and attached servants, you to support them until death, we 
see no reason why in this case laws should not be made 
to sanction the arrangement; and if sound and able minds 
were employed to make the laAvs under which the African 
may, at the North, find his true position, not of slavery, for we 
repudiate the word and the thing, but of a regulated servitude 
to a guardian -master, or mistress, we see no reason why 
these might not thus find what they cannot depend on in their 
present system, the comfort and respectability of permanent 
and contented servants. The American of revolutionary de- 
scent is no one's servant but his own — and happy were those 
families where, in the simplicity of the olden time, the mother 



and daughters served themselves and their tamilies. But in- 
crease of wealih, with the influx of foreigners, has changed 
these times, and now the unreliableness of domestic servants 
is the common complaint of Northern housekeepers — and not 
without reason. 

The foreigners, on whom we must rely, having in view 
ultimate independence, generally stay with us but a short 
season ; and while they remain, hoAV few of us are there who 
have been fortunate enough so to attach them to ourselves, 
that the interests of their own kindred will not be preferred 
to ours ! And many a tenderly-educated Northern woman, 
brought, by a wealthy and hospitable husband as a happy 
bride to a" magnificent home, falls a sacrifice to the conse- 
quent want of permanent domestic arrangements. She finds 
herself at some unfortunate moment, when her house is filled 
with guests, v/ith not a single servant. Her ambition to 
please her husband, and make his house acceptable to his 
friends, obliges her to tax herself to fill their several vacant 
offices. Nature, unused to the efi:brt, revolts, and she either 
dies, or lives a miserable invalid. And if such a one should 
yet remain on earth, what could her wealthy husband, with 
his extensive accommodations, do so well as to take to his 
home some of these contrabands, who could be supervised 
and taught by a mistress, who would thus have been brought 
to appreciate and love them for their useful domestic vir- 
tues ? 

American families who see that all which is here stated is 
true, might yet hesitate, fearing that European nobility 
might denounce them as having slaves to "fan them," &g. 
Bat our regulated system of colored servitude would be no 
more slavery than that service to which they constantly 
hold the hereditary servants of their own national blood ; 
nor would you keep them at a greater distance, or more 
hold your families disgraced by intei marriages with servants 
than do they. Yet these English homes are regarded 
throughout the world as the abodes of comfort and elegant 
enjoyment; and this cannot be, except where there are per- 
manent servants, knowing each their several places, and 
contented with their own condition. 

We do not wish to intermeddle with English servitude; 
neither do we desire their interference with ours. Their 
fathers, as allowed by Providence, forced the African race 
upon us ; and their statecraft has long, for the bad purpose 
of dividing us because "the safety of Europe requires it," 



10 

sought, and not vainl}^, to sow hatred and dissension among 
us; and now, regardless of all we must sufier, both North 
and South, fearing to lose the ultimate end of tlieir eftbrts, 
their money, and their emissaries — the division of our Ee- 
public ; now they talk of acknowleding the independence of 
the South, on the condition that the South shall set free their 
African domestics ! thus introducing confusion and misery 
into their homes, and probably causing the ultimate destruc- 
tion of the dependent race, whom they have long loved as 
their faithful and devoted servants. 

Daughters of the South ! plead with your sons and hus- 
bands, and avert these horrors while yet you may. Turn 
not away from your kindred of the North, whose blood flows 
intermingled with yours in a thousand channels, and whose 
memories of past national glories must forever be identified 
with yours. Although you have hated them, it was because 
you have been deceived, and falsely persuaded that they 
wished to bring that ruin upon your homes Avhich, it would 
seem, you are now preparing to bring upon them yourselves. 
Yet the North has never hated you. If she has waged war, 
she entered upon it against her will, because she had no other 
means to keep us all from worse than Mexican anarchy. Oh 
then relent, and no longer allow this cruel hatred to fill your 
hearts. Save your country ! save yourselves — your families 
— and doom not to destruction that affectionate race, who, if 
we all treat them as we ought, and no longer injure them 
by our dissentions, may yet become more happy and more 
elevated in mind and character than ever before ; and 
if placed and sustained in their TRUE POSITION, they may 
yet become an element of strength and increased civilii^ation 
to a redeemed and renovated nation. 

EMMA WILLARD. 

Baltimore, May 23, 1862. 



NOTES. 

Note A. — There are, who believe that women should be made equal 
with men, in political rights ; — and negroes with both. But would the sex 
have cause to thank these philanthropists, if, by giving them, during their 
lives, the fullest control of their property, and leaving to their husbands 
the duties of supporting them with their children, and paying their debts, 
they discountenanced marriage ? Or, will the colored race have cause to 
thank them, if they should succeed iu putting such conditions upon the 
whites as should prevent their voluntarily taking over them that parental 
guardianship which, to their improvident and aifectionate natures, becomes 
the source both of their happiness and their usefulness ? But if they are 
right, still the course we indicate is the best for the race which the times 
admit of; for, that the North should buy the negroes of the South, is not 
now feasible, whatever it may be hereafter ; and this would therefore con- 
stitute the best practical measure of gradual hmancipation. 

Note. B. — It may be recollected, that last winter I presented a memorial 
to Congress, pleading for peace, in the name of my sex. My original de- 
sign was expressed in a memorial longer than that presented ; and it brought 
forward the plan of settlement herein, much more fully developed. The 
following are extracts from the first, or larger, memorial, not presented : 

"When we have become sufficiently humbled by the chastisement which 
God is now infiicting upon us, then shall we be ready to inquire for the 
Right, — knowing that whatever is of Right, is of God. In it as in Him, 
there is Unity. Its path is straight, and if we can find it, all — North and 
South, East and West — may walk together in it. Every step towards 
it is a gain — to seek for Right in order to do it, is to draw near to God. 
Suppose His voice should now audibly inquire of all and of each, 'Are you 
willing to do right ?' and there came from a chastened people the universal 
reply, 'I am;' and again should the voice divine inquire, 'Are you ready 
to be satisfied with others when they do right ? and again there should come 
up a universal response, 'We are,' — then what would remain would be to 
agree on some method offinding out what the right in this case is, or of making 
the nearest possible approach to it ; so that those who have the care of the 
colored race may do it ; and which, they thus doing, all others in the Union 
are to be satisfied in heart, — to approve and to uphold. And this regardless 
of the sneers of foreign politicians, (who wish to divide us, so that our power 
as a nation may not become inconvenient to them, j and the more subtle in- 
fluences of poetical flourishes, whether found in the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence, or in the beautiful works of Cowper, Campbell, and others. The 
abuses of negro servitude, we are no more obligated by these resolves to 
uphold, than we are bound to justify the tyranny of husbands because we 
defend the institution of marriage." 

The memorial then recommends a Board of Commissioners from the 
North and South, to act "as guardians of the colored race, and arbiters for 
the just and peaceful settlement of the Slavery question, on the foundation 
of right, to be done by the one party, and to be firmly and boldly upheld 
by the other." 

In the two things necessary to the accomplishment of an object — the ivill 
and the loaij — that which we here seek to create, is the will. Let that ap- 
pear, and the genius of American jurists and statesmen would leap forth 
gladly to find the legal and expedient way : for this would be the glorious 
work of giving us once more a united country, increased in wisdom and 
strength. 



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